What is the difference between bees and flies

Sorry, but your search returned no results. Try searching with different keywords. This mason bee could easily be mistaken for a fly. Ten clues to identifying bees, wasps and flies. Probably a bee! A wasp is more likely to be under leaves or flowers hunting for aphids.

Probably a fly. Wasps and bees have four wings, two on each side. Pay attention: Some flies are bumblebee mimics! While flies have large eyes and a pair of short antennas bee has small eyes and the antennas are larger than that of flies.

Bee eats honey from the flowers. It is said to hover around the flowers and a good pollinator. On the other hand a fly is an insect that is said to move around garbage and other foul smelling items, they are not good pollinators.

This the major difference between a bee and a fly. A bee is after fragrance emanating from flowers whereas a fly is after foul and bad smell emanating from garbage and perishable food. Luckily for entomologists, no mimic is perfect. Below we'll take a look at different insects in Illinois that pose as bees, and the ways in which their mimicry is incomplete. Flies are one of the most common bee mimics in Illinois, and often very well disguised.

Even so, there are two simple ways to tell a fly mimic from a bee. First, look at the wings: bees have four wings , but flies have two wings. Second, look at the antennae: bees have elbowed antennae, while many flies have short, stubby, or hair-thin antennae.

If you can't see the antennae, you're probably looking at a fly. Drone flies , or hover flies , look and sound very similar to bees. When flying, their wings and antennae can be very difficult to observe - but their behavior will be very different from a bee. These flies hover and move erratically; bees generally move slowly from flower to flower, and do not hover in one place.

The picture on the left shows the wings of a bee right compared to a fly left. The other picture shows a very convincing bee mimic; however, notice the short, stubby antennae. A few beetles in Illinois may look similar to bees. However, beetles can always be recognized by the presence of elytra , or hardened forewings. Think of a June beetle or Japanese beetle - the shell on their back is actually the first pair of wings. The second pair of wings are kept underneath the elytra, and only extended when the beetle flies.

Bees, on the other hand, have four thin, translucent wings, all intended for flight. Painted Locust Borers are beetles with black and yellow stripes that are very common on goldenrod in the late summer. While flying, these and other related beetles can appear to be bees or wasps. However, when placed side-by-side with bees, it is clear that they share little other than color.

Many day-flying moths also mimic bees for protection. These moths can share almost all of the superficial features of a bee: four wings, thickened antennae that can appear elbowed, and a furry, black-and-yellow coloration.

As shown in the following diagrams, two of the wings of flies have been converted into tiny drumstick-shaped structures called Halteres. These structures help flies to perform their acrobatic flying feats. Above: bees have four wings, but flies only have two wings. The back two wings of flies have been converted into club-shaped Halteres, which help flies to balance well during flight.

Wasps and bees usually connect their front and back wings together with tiny hooks when they fly. So you need to look very closely to count the number of wings on your insect. However, if your insect looks like a bee but it only has two wings, then it is definitely a fly. Eyes and Antennae Flies have large round eyes that tend to be placed towards the front of the fly's head. In contrast, most bees and wasps have narrow, long, oval eyes on the sides of their heads.

Some types of wasps also have distinctive notches in the front edges of their eyes. Bees do not have notches in their eyes. Pollen-Collecting Hair and the Legs Female bees collect pollen to feed the young in their nests. To gather the dusty pollen more efficiently from flowers, many bees have thick furry coats. Using a high-powered microscope, we can see that bees have minute feathers on their hairs which help them trap the pollen grains see photo.